Overview:

• Recognition and registration are amalgamated rather than ideally differentiated; a focus is placed on the latter as legal registration but primarily equates to charitable status which suggests a lack of differentiation between procedures for religious entities and those for secular entities.

• Informational requirements seem appropriate but require continued monitoring to ensure they are not unduly expanded or misapplied to the detriment of applicant groups.

Positive elements:

• Freedom of religion or belief is broadly though not universally upheld by the government in practice.

• Provisions to give religious groups rights regardless of registration status demonstrates dynamic character.

Recommendations:

• To reach receptive status, establish a revitalised recognition system that provides both existential recognition and legal registration to all belief systems and their derivatives and at multiple levels of activity.

• To become classified as dynamic, establish a recognition agency that is autonomous of government control that is responsible for managing the recognition system.